Since taking office three years ago, President Joe Biden has made promoting the use of electric vehicles a key part of his agenda.

Yet in a humiliating move, three Democratic senators just joined with their Republican colleagues in attempting to bury that push. 

Proposed rule would have forced states to create emissions reductions plans

According to the Daily Caller, the Senate voted on Wednesday to quash a controversial Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulation.

The proposed rule would have forced state transportation agencies into establishing emissions reduction plans for all federally-funded highway projects.

However, Republicans succeeded at passing a resolution blocking the measure with help from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Jon Tester of Montana.

Joining them was Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent lawmaker who was originally elected in 2018 as a Democrat.

GOP senator accuses "unelected bureaucrats" of "foisting federal mediocrity"

The Daily Caller noted that Wednesday's resolution was the brainchild of North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer.

"Few things are more frustrating in government than unelected bureaucrats asserting authority they don't have and foisting federal mediocrity on the excellence of states," Cramer was quoted as saying.

"The Senate will take up my bipartisan resolution that overturns the Biden administration’s obviously illegal rule that requires state departments of transportation to measure CO2 tailpipe emissions then set declining targets for vehicles traveling on the highway systems of their respective states," the senator added.

The Daily Caller recalled how Cramer previously complained that the proposal would have a disproportionate impact on residents in rural areas.

"Misguided climate agenda has become a staple of the Biden administration"

Also voting for the resolution was West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito, who voiced opposition to the FHWA's emissions rule when it was first rolled out late last year.

"Federal overreach to advance a misguided climate agenda has become a staple of the Biden administration," Capito told the Daily Caller in a statement.

"The final rule, which imposes the performance measure and the requirement to set greenhouse gas targets on state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), is just one more example of these harmful regulations," she insisted.

"Without the authority to impose this mandate, the FHWA is ignoring the letter of the law to finalize a rule that hampers the ability of state DOTs and MPOs to address the transportation needs of their constituents," she added.